Launching A New Dosage Form For Under-served Patients

Case Study

When a pharma company developed a new formulation of spironolactone, Instigator helped brand, launch, and market the product.

The Opportunity

Spironolactone, a potassium-sparing diuretic usually taken in tablet form, is often prescribed to patients with chronic heart failure, edema, or hypertension. However, many of these patients also suffer from dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, due to their conditions.

Many pharmacists compound spironolactone for patients with dysphagia, but compounded formulations are costly and labor-intensive for pharmacists. They can also be risky for patients because doses may contain variable amounts of spironolactone.

To solve these problems, CMP Pharma developed CaroSpir®, the first and only FDA-approved oral suspension of spironolactone. CMP enlisted Instigator to help launch this formulation into a product and successfully get it into the hands of patients who need it most.

The Process

On the road to CaroSpir’s launch, our team of experts worked with CMP Pharma to develop a full identity package for CaroSpir that included its branding, messaging platform, website, and social media presence.

CaroSpir’s identity and tagline, “The Formulation That’s Easy,” communicates that the oral suspension is easy for patients to swallow, easy for doctors to prescribe, and easy for pharmacists to fill. Patients can comfortably swallow the oral suspension, doctors can have confidence that their patients take necessary medication, and pharmacists save time and money by avoiding the need to compound tablets.

We developed a marketing strategy that focused on marketing directly to decision-makers: the doctors who prescribe spironolactone and the pharmacists who compound it for dysphagic patients. This strategy employed several tactics to target the right audiences and educate them about the advantages of CaroSpir.

We partnered with a Big Data provider to identify 500,000 prescribers of spironolactone and communicate with them through a full communications platform, including eblasts, direct mail, cover wraps, and telesales.

We went further to reach the right people by using a named-target marketing platfom, through which we could target specific decision makers in the industry and educate them on CaroSpir through ads across several platforms. We created a series of videos to introduce CaroSpir, and the hyper-targeted audience saw these videos several times across their Facebook and Instagram news feeds, YouTube video views, LinkedIn timelines, and on other sites they visit regularly.

Finally, we made sure to incorporate our marketing strategy across all platforms, including CaroSpir’s presence at trade shows. We encouraged CMP to attend trade shows that address prescribers, and our database of prescribers provided CMP with a context of the people they met. We utilized data capture services that synchronized with our database and identified how often they’d prescribed spironolactone in the past.

The Result

Thanks to Instigator’s unique and in-depth branding strategies and marketing tactics, CaroSpir has launched successfully. Sales of CaroSpir have been strong, and have been increasing monthly since launch.

Next Case Study

When a small pharma company brought their women’s health product to trial, Instigator developed branding and marketing initiatives that helped them meet their clinical trial’s recruitment goals. The Opportunity Fervent Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to addressing women’s health issues by meeting unmet needs associated with menopause, especially hot flashes and night sweats. The company developed a […]

As a fresh era of quality metrics reporting and lean six-sigma quality improvement systems begins, we must embrace a paradigm shift. The days of empirically-led One Factor at a Time (OFAT) product and process development for drug delivery system development are over.